Thursday, February 9, 2012

48 hidden images in "Black Swan"

I'm sure many of you who saw "Black Swan" clicked pause many times during the club scene. But did you guys know there are other times in the movie when watching it frame by frame can be quite rewarding? Since I can't exactly post all the moments of eerie laughter or flatter of the wings appearing in the background (because I don't know how to extract those, to be completely honest) - I leave it to you all to listen carefully. I can however provide you with screenshots I made today, using DVD, "e" button and movie player. Here we go:

1. In the subway scene in the beginning of the movie if you freeze frame you will see Nina is seeing herself and not Lily, although later on in the movie Lily is wearing exactly the same clothes and earrings.

2. In the underground passage scene if you watch the scene frame by frame you will notice that the girl approaching Nina is Lily...

3. ...only to change into Nina just as she passes her.

4. The club scene: Rothbart and Nina as White Swan are seen.

5. The club scene: Beth is seen between Nina and Lily.

6+7:The club scene: Thomas appears behind Nina, in the next frame he changes into Rothbart.

8,9, 10: The bizarre rash appears in various moments in the movie.

11+12: The ballerinas Nina sees during opening night all have her face. One of them even winks at her.

13+14: The club scene: Nina as Black Swan is seen in two frames.

15+16:The club scene: Black Swan's eyes

17+18: In the scene when Nina is crying in the studio and the dark figure appears when she is standing in the shadow she is Nina, but after she says "Hey" and steps closer it is Lily.

19: Thomas has skeleton Swan in his office.

20+21: In the scene where Nina trips during showing Thomas her Coda there are 4 turns - during first two we see Thomas screaming "attack it" during 3rd we see Nina looking with a smile in the door at Nina failing to dance perfectly and during 4th we see Lily in the exact same clothes entering the room.

22:The club scene: Nina in partial Black Swan make up.

23: The club scene: Butterfly wallpaper from Nina's bedroom is seen in the background.

24, 25, 26: The club scene: When Nina is looking for Lily several images happen - Nina in Black Swan make up and Nina multiplying, almost as if she was in kaleidoscope.

27+28: When Nina is late to her rehearsal after the night in the club and when she is walking to speak to Lily about her telling Thomas Nina was crying she is seen scratching her back.

29+30: When Nina is looking for her mother the face on the green painting changes - the eyes are following Nina.

31: When Nina notices it, the reflection in the mirror behind her moves faster than Nina herself.

32: Curiously the green painting is the one Nina's mother is correcting few scenes later.

33+34: The club scene: Rothbart appears several times.

35: The club scene: Lily is seen embracing him.

36+37: The Black Swan doll is the only black toy in Nna's room. Later on when she is getting rid of her stuffed animals, Black Swan falls on the ground and Nina doesn't pick him up. All the other toys end up in the trash chute.

38: The shadow of the wings.

39: White swan figurine next to Nina's bed.

40. The swan can be seen on the sponge behind Nina.

41: The club scene: In one frame there is a tiny ballerina dancing with moon on the background - it appears to be the same as Nina dancing her final performance in the ending of the movie.

42:The club scene: Right before Nina and Lily hug, they both appear to be the same person.

43:The club scene: When they hug things around them appear to become more and more creepy and distorted.

44: In the sex scene Lily turns into sinister looking Nina.

45: When Beth is stabbing herself in the face she suddenly turns into Nina with bloodshot eyes.

Though I think Black Swan, for me, was definitely one of the biggest disappointments I've had at the cinema in years (annoyingly, since it was the film I was looking most forward to seeing when it came out in the UK last year), this has definitely made me want to watch the club scene again at least.

WOW! I had noticed a few of these but not as many as you have. This post is exactly the reason why I love this movie - the amount of effort put into every shot (with such a small budget) is simply AMAZING.

Creeepy... this is so much better than another review that I wouldn't read! I've only seen the movie one time, but it's one of my favorites and now I just HAVE TO own the DVD!Actually, the creepies thing is that picture with the eyes following Nina... I never noticed it.

Great post. I had noticed several of those things, but nowhere near the amount you have here. Thank you for taking the time to put together the post. I felt this was the second best movie of all of 2010, so it was fun to see all of these extras for it.

Interesting stuff. There is one more, that I know of........when Nina is there alone at night, she goes across the stage and sees Lily and Tomas/Rothbart screwing around, Lily turns into Nina laughing at her.

Whoaaaah, I lisened that Natalie Portman said that the shooting has been exhausted by her, that the first thing she did when she finished the shooting was rest by first time in several months. Now I know why a shooting will be so exhausting; all this details who nobody notice is very hard-working.

i was watching the club scene last night, slowed down frame-by-frameon my cheap DVR. and was able to catch these images and a few more.wasn't sure if anyone else knew about ALL the cool looking hidden imagesgoing on during this all too awesome and all too brief club scene. thankyou for this breakdown, it's pretty damn cool. love the Chemical Brotherstrack that is playing in the scene too!

This was a superb post! Though some of them I thought I saw on my own (the club scenes mainly) there are a lot I didn't pick up on - hello scratching her back in two scenes, so obvious but I didn't catch it! This makes me want to go back and watch the movie again to see all the hidden images. Thank you!

It's hard to decipher your sophisticated grammar but if you are suggesting you can find these kind of hidden images in any movie, I'm looking forward to your breakdown of Dumb and Dumber and Scooby Doo.

wow. very cool. ive watched this movie a lot, but never seen this stuff. takes two years to make a movie, right? nice to know they put a little elbow grease into it. fuckin Arronofsky. cant wait for his moses movie.

I honesty haven't watched this movie yet. I know it's been 3 years since it's release but I just hadn't gotten around to seeing it. Tonight, I've cleared all my plans so I can watch this. Super excited. This will definitely help me write my paper for film class tomorrow. :)

I love that this is still getting comments after 2 1/2 years. After seeing the stills, I watched the movie again to look for everything on here. I can honestly say I'm a little obsessed with this film.

OMG how come I just found your blog ??Okay, so I have watched this movie many times, have seen quite creepy scene from Nina but had not notice these little thing such as tiny ballerina in a club, Rothbart, etc. The reason why I paused the club scene simply because I love the song played called The Chemical Brothers - Don't Think (Black Swan Remix) where I would dance to this song high on ecstasy, just like in the movie.

Thanks to you and Darren Aronofsky, This is a movie no matter how many times you watch it you just cant get enough. AMAZING !